Distance education courses involve two core activities
by the learners:
- Independent study of course materials and resources—the
courseware that makes up the physical, mediated content
of the course
- Interaction with other course participants (tutors,
instructors, other learners, resource people).
It is through a package of courseware, specifically designed
for independent study, that the teaching in a distance
education course is mediated—using text, audio, audiovisual,
or electronic media. The form that an item of courseware
takes, and how it is studied by the learner, depends on
the technology used to support and deliver the media (for
example, text can be delivered on paper, as print, or
by the Web, as hypertext files; video can be delivered
as broadcast TV, on cassette, or digitized, in a computer
file). The same technology— as videoconferencing,
audiographic conferencing, or the Web— be used to
both transmit content and support interactions, but in
most cases different technologies are used for these purposes.
Print could be said to be the foundation of distance
education. More than 85 percent of distance education
programs use print either as the main delivery technology
for courseware or in conjunction with other media and
technologies. The importance and quality of print have
increased as the ready access to relatively low-cost desktop
publishing and on-demand printing technology has eased
the tasks of preparing, updating, and revising textual
and graphics materials. Distance education programs use
several different types of print materials.
Recorded audio and video can be used in more flexible
and effective ways in distance education than can broadcast
programs. Because this technology gives learners the ability
to stop the tape, reflect on a sequence, perhaps do a
self-test exercise or carry out a procedure, and then
review the sequence again before moving on to the next,
it encourages more active listening and viewing and thus
increases the likelihood of retention and understanding
of the material.
More resources:
Murphy, D.
Tsang, E. & Vermeer, R. 1996, "Interactive
multimedia development at the Open learning Institute
of Hong Kong," Paper presented at the conference
on Educational Technology 2000: A Global Vision for Open
and Distance Learning, Singapore, August 15-17, 1996.
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